The global market in money – housed in the offshore ‘shadow’ banking system – holds $217
trillion in financial assets and operates beyond the reach of any nation’s taxman. Asset
managers private equity firms and pension and sovereign wealth funds scoop up the world’s
savings for investment and manage them as they choose unaccountable to politicians or the
citizens who elect them. In this brilliant accessible and incisive introduction to the murky
world of globalized finance Ann Pettifor links the activities of remote mobile financial
markets to both the cost-of-living and climate crises. In an insane global casino bankers are
gambling with our future. When we foot the bill no one but a few economists understands what
has happened. The result is volatile unpredictable and uncontrollable speculation in global
commodities pension energy and housing. Pettifor argues that societies and governments can
take back control of the global financial system. We have done it before and can do it again.
Indeed it is imperative that we do so if we are to manage the twin threats of climate
breakdown and biosphere collapse.
